SB 64 would eliminate the religious exemption to vaccines required for public and private school children.

It would also add a new section of law requiring the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine to jointly create a medical exemption review panel that shall review all medical exemptions.

If passed, the new law would become effective on July 1, 2020.

We have seen what happens to families in California and New York where religious exemptions have been removed and medical exemptions are reviewed and restricted. SB 64 is a dangerous bill that needs to be stopped early so Florida doesn’t become like California or New York.

It is very important that families who support the religious and medical exemptions get out ahead of Senator Book’s effort and talk to their legislators and like-minded families to get involved now!

Those who are currently in office during this interim period will be the same legislators who will vote on this bill this spring as statewide legislative offices are not on the ballot this fall.

ACTION REQUIRED

Contact your Florida state senator and state representative and respectfully ask them to oppose SB 64 in the 2020 legislative session.

As soon as possible, schedule an in-person meeting with your state senator and representative to express to them how important it is to your family to have religious and unrestricted medical exemptions available. Share your vaccine reaction, denial of medical care, and harassment or discrimination stories.

Email your state senator and representative also using their preferred method of contact (see d.)

Attend events where your legislators may be speaking or presenting and express your concerns there as well. Follow your legislators on social media so you can know when and where they will be attending and speaking during the interim so that you can attend and have opportunities to provide more information and ask questions.

Legislative contact information: you can login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal, click on the “State Teams” tab and then “My State,” and your elected officials are automatically posted on the right hand side of the page. You can click on their name to display contact information and social media accounts that you can follow. You can also find your representatives here and senators here.

Contact the sponsor Senator Lauren Book and respectfully ask her to withdraw SB 64.Be polite and explain how important religious and unrestricted medical exemptions to vaccination are for you and your family. Share your vaccine reaction, denial of medical care, and harassment or discrimination stories. Contact information for Senator Book is posted at http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S32.

Login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal OFTEN to check for updates. We review bills and make updates daily. Bills can change many times over the legislative process and your timely visits, calls, and emails directed at the correct legislators are critical to this process. Even though the Florida legislature is not currently in session, you can see how this is important because bills are already being filed.

In 2015, SB 646, a bill that would have severely restricted exemptions was prefiled in Florida. However, the bill was withdrawn with the help of Florida NVIC Advocacy Members and other Florida citizens who expressed their concerns early and in large numbers. You can view our early action alerts on this 2015 bill in the archives on the NVIC Advocacy Portal Florida page.

Let’s all commit to working to hopefully attain the same results for 2020! Sitting on the sidelines waiting won’t cut it.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.